At the foundation of many electrical technologies is the ability to electrically connect different electrical devices together. It is common to connect such electrical devices using some type of electrical cable assembly that includes an electrical conductor (such as a wire or coax cable) and a terminal connected to at least one end of the electrical conductor. The terminal is typically “crimped” to the end of the conductor using a crimping tool, which effectively reforms the terminal around the conductor to form a firm connection. In use, the terminal is used to connect the conductor to the electrical device. Often, the reliability of the electrical device depends in part on the quality of the connection created between the terminal and the conductor (i.e., the “crimp”). For this reason, especially in high volume manufacturing environments, the conductor-to-terminal interface is evaluated using a crimp validation process to determine whether the crimp meets or exceeds certain electrical and mechanical performance levels.
One known crimp validation process used by the automotive industry is the USCAR-21 specification, developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the United States Center for Automotive Research (USCAR). This specification lists a series of tests to be performed to validate a cable/terminal combination prior to use in a production vehicle. These tests involve crimp design development, sample build, sample inspection, physical testing, results analysis and production documentation so that the crimp can ultimately be classified as “validated.” Unfortunately, this type of validation process requires producing, and subsequently destroying, many examples of a proposed crimp and requires several weeks to complete.
Accordingly, the embodiments described hereinafter were developed in light of these and other drawbacks associated with known crimp validation systems.